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As many nonprofits have grown larger, they are adopting concepts and tools from the private sector to improve their own operations and effectiveness. For such growth and adaptation to continue, it is important to understand how knowledge is transferred across sectors. Describes a pioneering study of marketing knowledge transfer based on the experiences of executives in relatively large nonprofit organizations who migrated across sectors. Reveals that the use of marketing concepts and tools in the nonprofit sector is much lower and offers explanations rooted in cultural and organizational differences. Recommends more cross-sector transfer of marketing knowledge.

Here's a familiar story: A nonprofit organization joins forces with a corporation in a cause-related marketing campaign. It seems like a win-win deal, but the nonprofit--and the media--find out several weeks into the campaign that the corporation's business practices are antithetical to the nonprofit's mission. The nonprofit's credibility is severely damaged. Is the moral of the story that nonprofits should steer clear of alliances with for-profit organizations? Not at all, Alan Andreasen says. Nonprofit managers can help their organizations avoid many of the risks and reap the rewards of cause-related marketing alliances by thinking of themselves not as charities but as partners in the marketing effort.

Successful research is designed to lead to actionable conclusions. By working backward and ascertaining results before the research actually hits the field, managers are more likely to get results they can work with. Managers must tell researchers the answers they need to accomplish company goals. By determining where they want to go, and then figuring out how to get there, both managers and researchers can expect successful research.

Many small businesses and nonprofit organizations avoid doing marketing research because they have at least five misconceptions about it: the big decision myth; the survey myopia myth; the big bucks myth; the sophisticated researcher myth; and the most research is not read myth.